Building a Private Cloud? Get Back to Basics.

The NBA playoffs and draft are history, leaving me time to ponder what makes a player great. Larry Bird and John Stockton are two of basketball’s all-time greatest players. No, they didn’t have the flashiest moves, the tackiest tattoos or even the most expensive bling on their front teeth. What they had were honest skills deep-rooted in the fundamentals—the basics. And that made them great.

Too often, we forget about the basics. A company decides it’s going to embrace the cloud. Suddenly, it’s building the biggest, baddest private cloud infrastructure known to mankind. Everything’s moving to the cloud: business-critical apps, apps that perhaps aren’t so critical—even this week’s cafeteria menu. Every workload will be built to withstand the test of time. And security will rival Fort Knox. It’s an ambitious project. Sure. But the company soon realizes that it has bitten off more than it can chew. And the project collapses under its own weight.

In June, I attended the IT Infrastructure, Operations and Management (ITOM) Summit. Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman had some interesting things to say, which I’ve incorporated into my suggested strategy for getting back to cloud computing’s basics:

• Evaluate your alternatives, including private clouds, public clouds and non-cloud solutions
• Define what your cloud services will be—with business needs addressed at the forefront
• Get leadership buy-in by presenting your business case for the change
• Develop plans that detail the changes in technology, roles, processes and management
• Create metrics that will capture the quality, agility and economics of your services
• Finally, start small and think big; you’ll undoubtedly learn a lot as you go

A couple of points worth noting: When choosing a cloud provider, you don’t necessarily have to go with the large organization with the internationally recognized name. In fact, the size of a cloud provider is no guarantee that they will even succeed. The smaller guy may even work harder to serve you.

Also, don’t try to create workloads that future composers will write operas about. Some, if not most, workloads are akin to the adult mayfly—made for single purpose and meant to be short-lived. In other words, disposable. Think “good enough” versus “bulletproof” for these temporary workloads.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to stifle innovation or competitive advantage. What I’m saying is, focus the bulk of your energies on those workloads that truly deserve your attention—those containing personally identifiable information, proprietary data or otherwise confidential material.

WorkloadIQ solutions can help here. One of their main purposes is to help you determine which are simply utilitarian mayflies and which are deserving of becoming epic masterpieces.

If you find yourself in a cloud-computing slump, do what great athletes do: get back to the basics. After all, that extra bling won’t help you avoid turnovers or make those free throws.

–Richard